29. Emma
Tears blurred my vision. An anchor of regret settled in the pit of my stomach weighing me down as Chase fell to the ground. I watched the last man standing crawl over Chase”s body hoping to get a shot off to his head, ending him for good, surely to take me out next. Chase’s eyes snapped open at the last minute strangling the life out of him, taking one last shot to his right arm.
That bullet shredded through his bicep, but his grip never relented. The choking sounds of the dying man were going to haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life as I watched the life drain from him. Shoving him off, Chase’s figure was dragging itself using only his good arm towards me as consciousness slapped me back into my body, my mouth agape in a horrific scream that pierced my ears and burned my throat. My lungs screamed until there was no air left, nothing there to give the sound strength.
Red, white, and blue, flashed before my eyes as police and first responders flooded in kicking tepid water in my face. My tears refused to stop flowing as I held Chase’s head in my lap. Looking down at his face painted in blood as my vision blacked.
Pain throbbed behind my eyes as I wished more than anything I’d been shot too. I wanted to be with Chase regardless of the circumstance; death included. The most powerful love I’d ever felt, and I was holding it going limp and lifeless in my arms.
The caress of a hand wiping my face startled me.
My mouth was still hanging open as my eyes met the emerald green of his. Chase looked at me, his lids hazy with affection as he stroked my cheek.
“Don’t cry kitten,” his voice sounded wet. The vital fluid trickled out the sides of his mouth. He spit up blood uncontrollably.
“Chase,” I garbled out, “how, why?” I stuttered the words.
“I’m always watching over you, kitten,” he wheezed, “what good would I have been, if I couldn”t even protect the woman I love.”
Fuck. His words rang on repeat, the words I”d been too afraid to say out loud after everything that’s happened.
“Please,” I could barely hear the words as first responders surrounded us. Throwing sheets over the deceased and calling for more assistance to be dispatched, “please don’t leave me.”
Chase’s eyes dilated. My heart stopped.
I regretted every shitty thing I”d said to him. Every awful moment we ever had together rampaged its way to the surface of my mind, only allowing me to think of the ways I’d failed him. The ways I”d hurt him.
Back on the sidewalk where I stood frozen in time, I watched myself break his heart for the last time, and he still died for me.
Paramedics hauled my body away from him as they stood over him shouting orders and team lifting him onto a stretcher. All of this played before my eyes in a grotesque ruse of events.
And I never said I love you back.